Social media is a very public forum. The whole social media landscape can view negative commentary about your business. When this happens, people will judge you based on a number of factors:
- How soon did you respond?
- What was your response?
- What was your customer’s answer?
- What was the resolution?
Social media is all about a prompt response and fast reply. People on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram literally live there. They are able to post in the morning, during breakfast, after dinner or in the middle of the night.
If you decide to have a business profile, you need to be ready to do the same. You might be of the opinion that no one will notice one negative review however people definitely will! And should you not react, they will draw a conclusion, that you don’t care about your customers and your PR.
Four Principles for Dealing With Negative Social Media Feedback
Monitor Your Social Media Accounts
Be careful and watch out for all mentions of your company, people, products as well as brands. Do this with a programme such as Google Alerts as well as other services on the market.
Be prompt to answer
The reason why people post negative comments online is because they don’t think they’re being listened to. This means that they get very angry. Some people do this just to warn their friends off of using, what they think, is a bad product. The more social media-savvy ones will post hateful comments to hurt you as well as to force you to notice them.
Speed is critical. Acknowledge the customer’s challenges as quickly as you can before it gets out of hand and damages your brand. There doesn’t necessarily need to be an immediate solution but follow this up with concrete actions.